An electronic module comprises a printed circuit board and components which are mechanically and electrically attached thereto. For printed circuit board production, the components are positioned on the printed circuit board using an automatic pick-and-place unit, and are then soldered thereto in a reflow kiln. A plurality of automatic pick-and-place units can be passed through sequentially in a pick-and-place line. For the production of multiple printed circuit boards, a population system comprising a plurality of pick-and-place lines can be employed.
A combination of component types on the automatic pick-and-place unit is described as a set-up. A set-up can be used to produce a quantity of different printed circuit boards, described as a set-up family. Customarily, however, printed circuit boards of a greater number of different printed circuit board types are to be produced than is possible with a single set-up, such that the set-up must be changed during production.
A set-up can be accommodated on one or more set-up tables, which can easily be replaced on the automatic pick-and-place unit. However, the fitting of a set-up table with components of predefined component types is frequently complex. Consequently, set-ups are frequently differentiated into fixed set-ups and variant set-ups, wherein a fixed set-up table is designed to maintain its combination of component types over a predefined planning horizon, whereas a variant set-up table can foreseeably be refitted within said planning horizon.
DE 10 2012 220 904 A1 relates to a method for the determination of a fixed set-up for a pick-and-place line.